Chapter 44. Boss! Why'd you do that?

“Boss! Why’d you do that?” Arthur struggled to pull the blanket off his body crumpling it up into a ball and tossing it back at Boss covering him up in the process.

“Hm? I didn’t do anything.” Boss’ voice could be heard coming from underneath the blanket. Shuffling the blanket off of his body, Boss’ face turned pale pointing at a figure standing directly behind Arthur.

“Be-behind you!”

“Hm?” Arthur turned his head around. A white demonic mask was staring directly at his face.

“…”

“AHH!” Arthur rolled backwards and hopped immediately to the opposite of the bed.

“Ahaha” Boss broke out in laughter as Shelly removed the mask on her face.

“Sh-Shelly! Boss! You, meanie!” Arthur shouted the moment Shelly removed her mask.

Shelly walked over to their bed and sat down on it. Silver gave the puppy cowering beside Arthur a look and hopped down onto Shelly’s lap, startling the puppy in the process. It paid the puppy no mind and stretched itself.

Arthur came to himself as Barkie hopped on top of his head. “Why’re you here Shelly?” He asked.

“Michael wanted to talk to Julie alone about her destiny and the mission the Pope assigned for them.” Shelly replied.

“Is Michael okay?” Arthur asked. Even though he liked to mess with Michael and pick on him ever since they’ve met years ago, he never hated him. Seeing what Michael and Julie had to go through in the future Arthur couldn’t help but be worried and careful around them. He didn’t want to accidently spill this secret they’ve kept from Julie.

“He looks okay.” Shelly replied calmly. She continued, “Young master, you should try to meditate whenever possible.”

“It’s too hard, I don’t get it.” Arthur was annoyed, it’s been more than a week of constant training and meditation and it feels like he hasn’t made any progress on it. When it came to be sparring with Cobble, Pebble, and Gran at least he had an idea of what he should do, but when it came to meditation, he couldn’t figure it out.

“It’s okay, you can do it young master.” Shelly calmly replied. “Just close you eyes and focus on your breathing. Don’t think about anything else.”

Shelly demonstrated what Arthur had to do, her eyes closed, back straight, and legs crossed. Not even five seconds later the entire room felt different as if the person in front of them had become one with her surroundings.

To Arthur even though he could see Shelly, if he couldn’t even believe she was sitting there. He wouldn’t have noticed her if she meditated. Was this how it was every time they were meditating in the room?

Arthur immediately closed his eyes and tried replicating what she had done. Time slowly went by, flashes of scenes continued to pound his mind forcing him to react. His parents, the Seraphim, Michael, things and events kept appearing within his mind culminating into an unstable mass he couldn’t ignore or suppress.

“I can’t do it!” Arthur shouted; cold sweat was dripping down his forehead. His shout startled to pets who turned their head towards the boy. Shelly calmly opened her eyes a few seconds later seeing the agitated look on Arthur’s face.

“Try to take it slow, you have too much on your mind, young master.” Shelly calmly replied.

“Of course I do! How can you just ignore and forget everything! How can you do it so easily, but I can’t!?” His voice was getting louder and more agitated.

“It was the only way for me to live.” Shelly maintained an expressionless face. Her calm reply instantly shut Arthur up. He never asked Shelly about her life before she became a member of their household and his only friend. Hearing her mention meditation as the only way for her to live, Arthur couldn’t help but ask.

“What do you mean?”

Shelly remained silent causing Arthur to panic for blurting out such a question. “I-I mean, I didn’t I-I”

“It’s okay.” Shelly calmly replied. She continued, “Young master, it’s not important right now, try your best to find your inner energy.” Shelly closed her eyes and continued meditating.

Boss leaned over and whispered into Arthur’s ears “If you don’t find it, you and Shelly will be separated in Naturelle. Ya know since she already unlocked her inner energy.”

Hearing Boss’ words shocked Arthur, he completely forgot that he’ll be separated from Shelly if he didn’t unlock his inner energy. Arthur turned to look at Shelly who was peacefully meditating completely in her own world. He closed his eyes and tried to do the same.

Michael returned to the room a few hours later prompting Shelly to excuse herself back to her room. Her eyes turned to give the silver haired boy one last look, his back straight, legs crossed, and his face was calm as he maintained his meditative state.

A slightly perplex look can be seen on Michael’s face as he examined the boy in front of him after Shelly left. Did Arthur pull a miracle and learned how to meditate? He turned to silently ask Boss if this was true, however the purple haired kid ignored him and continued to observe the changes going on within Arthur.

The inner energy within the boy increased in speed and condensed itself even further. Did perhaps mentioning Shelly brought about this change? Maybe I should mention her more often around him. Boss thought to himself.

Michael realized that it was better to not make a sound if Arthur was truly meditating and shuffled into his own bed. He was prepared to sleep when he gave the little boy another glance. If this kid can do it, then so can I. Michael pull the blanket away from his body and sat straight up.

The night flew by with those meditating falling asleep midway through. Each and everyone made some progress that night.

Michael learned some more details about why Julie was so adamant about not going to the Tillowisk Empire. However, when he tried to ask about her destiny, she continued to change the subject. Shelly also concluded that Boss was the reason for the qualitative energy changes in her body. Arthur managed to meditate for the first time. Orchid in her own delusion feels like she is one step closer to becoming husband and wife with Gran after dinner with the family last night.

Sunrise came and the kids and young adults are excited to run and scare people. However, there was one thing they had to do—Morning training with Cobble.

Bam bam bam

Five people surrounded a single enormous green haired tanned skin man at the center. Weapons and fists were colliding with the man’s body. Every attacker hopped back from the recoil of the collision, some stepped back a few steps further to regain their balance. However, the person who was attacked remained at the center.

It was Cobble and the 2 kids and 3 young adults who was training with him. Cobble seemed extremely energetic and happy this morning when they arrived greeting them directly at the front door. He led them straight to the back and instead of their usual one on one he directly challenged all at the same time.

“Come on!” Cobble roared at the five exhausted attackers before him. Provoking them to continue with their barrage of failed attacks. The five answered to his roar and responded with an outburst of their own. An arrow shot from Shelly’s bow initiated another round of attacks.

Footsteps trampled on the dirt as they pulled out their weapons and lunged towards the towering man before them. Any regular person would’ve been pierced through and diced five ways from the blades in their hands. However just a few centimeters before any contact with the flesh is made a strong popping explosion sent them flying back a few meters.

Steam was coming off the body of Cobble as his burst of inner energy propelled outwards intimidating those before him. Blowing out the steam from his nostrils like that of a raging bull Cobble maintained his stance and awaited their next attack.

Undeterred by the intimidation Cobble presented the kids, they quickly changed their plans going from straightforward head on attacks to tactics. Julie continued to attempt to stall Cobble momentarily with her powers while the others aimed for Cobble’s blind spot. But as a pure defensive user, there was no blind spot for Cobble from those who are weaker than him.

Arrows, weapons, fists, dirt, and anything else they could fling and throw at him continued to get deflected by the unmovable man before them. Tactics both complex and dirty used by the trainees left more to be desired.

Training ended quicker and faster than their usual one versus one ending in less than 2 hours of nonstop attacks. The trainees were exhausted, some of them were lying on the ground unable to move, while the others could barely maintain standing. Cobble was impenetrable fortress deflecting everything they threw at him. Even the weapons were cracked, chipped and broken from constant abuse.

“Haaaah haaaah, I can’t breathe, I can’t. Water~” Arthur was beyond tired; his heart was racing and the air he was breathing in felt extremely thin. “Haaaah, haaah, me too please” Michael followed asking the same thing as Arthur.

“Me too”

“Me too”

“Please”

Cobble wiped the sweat from his forehead and smiled brightly at the exhausted people before them. “Don’t worry, water is on the way.” He sat down on the pavement nearby also catching his breath. Even though training was only two hours today, he used more energy during this training than the previous three combined.

The door from the manor slowly opened with a tray of sliced meat, fruits and vegetable carried out by Pebble who was inside. Shortly after an enormous white cloth floated out and spread itself down evenly on the dirt covering five meters (15 feet) in every direction. Gran greeted the kids as he sat down on the cloth, Pebble placed the tray of food and vegetables on the blanket.

However, there was still no water. Moments later the door opened again and clear glasses of water on top of a tray was presented before their eyes and placed down on the five-meter square cloth beside them. But their eyes weren’t on the water that they so desperately wanted to drink; it was on the person who carried it out.

Seeing their wide eye and shocked faces clearly expressing their disbelief as if wondering if they were hallucinating. They turned their eyes to Cobble, Pebble, and Gran’s smiling and nodding faces.

Amused by their reaction the beautiful woman with short orange hair and dark green eyes placed a cup of water in the hand of each of them. “It’s good to see you kids again.” She said, causing Arthur’s eyes to slightly water down his smiling face. Everyone else had similar expressions to seeing her in such good health.

“Haaaaah, you’re awake! Haaaah” Arthur couldn’t maintain his happiness from seeing someone recover after suffering. Hearing the ominous words of Dr. Galil and what he and everyone else went through just from touching a bit of the volatile energy expelling from her, Arthur would be lying if he said he wasn’t extremely worried.

As if her presence re energized the people around her, the kids and young adults quickly got up and drank the glass of water. They all sat on the cloth surrounding the food presented before them. Gran and Roselyn leaned on each other as they watched the kids eat. They told the kids to eat first and they’ll talk afterwards.

The kids didn’t know where to start when the food was finished. They could only absentmindedly stare at the woman before them, unsure of what to say. Words, sentences, things came to mind only for them to shake their head for asking such question. Eventually Roselyn was the first to speak.

“I woke up last night, and I’m feeling great.” Roselyn’s serene voice clearly answered the most basic question on everyone’s mind. Arthur tried to formulate what he wanted to ask as his eyes continued to stare at the belly of Roselyn’s.

“The baby is doing fine too.” Roselyn added causing Arthur to sigh in relief.

“What happened?” Julie asked. She wanted to know what had caused all of the problems.

“I don’t know myself, honestly.” Roselyn replied, she was as confused as they were why she felt such abnormal pain. “If I had to guess, it’s related to my powers. But even I don’t know why it reacted that way.” The last thing Roselyn remembered was a sharpshooting pain coming from her own ability, she tried to suppress it only for it to completely overwhelm her drowning her completely and knocking her unconscious.

“What is your power?” Arthur asked. Everyone gave Arthur a weird look.

“What?” Arthur asked he was unsure why everyone reacted that way.

It was without saying Exotics were special in what they can learn and do. Each and every Exotics had abilities and powers unique to themselves. Some Exotics will have similar skills, yet it wouldn’t completely be exact replicas. Because of this uniqueness, Exotics subconsciously don’t want to reveal their own abilities.

Arthur didn’t know much of the world to know that secrecy was a thing Exotics prefer, that’s why even Shelly didn’t tell Arthur much about her own abilities.

“It’s okay.” Roselyn replied. She was about to continue when the door opened again. Everyone turned their head instinctively only to see a brown-haired kid with sunglasses and an arm full of snacks walking in.

The kid sat down on the cloth completely oblivious to Roselyn’s sudden reawakening and continued to munch on the food in his arm.

Burp

“We can scare them now.”